Monday, August 30, 2010

This was the weekend that Kinson had been anxiously waiting for--we were going to the beach!! The problem was that the Rain Gods had other plans. Orange Beach received 4" of rain Friday and 5"of rain on Saturday. Needless to say we never got a grain of sand on our feet :( We did get to spend a few hours in the various pools and the kids loved it. After an unfortunate incident with our AC in the condo, we cut our stay a night short and came back home. Kinson keeps asking us when we are going to the beach!!

I am never on this side of the camera, however I felt the need to document the birthday celebration!!

This is my "best friend" as he calls me. He is really at the best age right now. He tells us stories from his day and he NEVER forgets anything you tell him-- this has started to backfire on us.

Isn't she adorable?!! She loved the water so much, especially the fact that she could be in the majority of the pool and still stand up.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Before Cohen had hearing aids, she could only hear a certain range of pitches and in that range only 4 syllables can be heard-- M, B, D, and N sounds. After we found this out, we were taught how to do some audiometry games with her until we got our hearing aids to help identify what she was hearing. The first letter they told us to start with was "M" and make the "mmmm" sound. So they suggested that we use the cow sound to make the game fun.
Well you know me, we can't just have 1 cow---we have to have the whole farm!! We have cows everywhere. She can identify the cow out of all of animals when asked and if you ask her what the cow says, she presses her lips together and she goes"mmmm." This is a HUGE accomplishment. It is the first hard sound we have been consistent with when she is directly asked to identify.

Couldn't you just eat her up?!?!

We went back and saw the endo last week and her growth hormone levels are up--which is a sign that her body is able to absorb it--but not as high as they would like. Her baseline was 29, she is now at 120, but they would like her at 250. The dr doubled her dose of injection and we will retest in 2 months. We do measure her standing at home and mark her every 2 weeks and according to our measurements she has grown 1/4-1/2" in the last 6 weeks. There is a fine line as to what we want to happen. Insurance says that she must demonstrate adequate growth and increase in levels but can not "overachieve" and grow too much in 1 year because then she will not qualify for the medicine anymore. We have found out recently that it is not necessarily the actual growing part that is the most important but the medicine will help turn her "cherub" body into lean muscle (at this time her body does not make adequate muscle mass) and help mature her bone age (hers is at a 9month old age). We have seen a big difference in her body make up. We used to have all this fat to pinch and give her medicine in and that has gotten harder.

I just previewed this post and if you stayed awake during that last part, you have to be just as big of a nerd as I am because it was sooo boring!! But I know so many of yall ask and are concerned so I try and get all the facts out there and plus I use this as my "journal" to keep up with her progress. Next post I will try and leave all the medical mumbo-jumbo out and just put what yall really come to my blog for---pictures of my little angels!!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Everybody takes pictures of their kids' first day of school so I decided that maybe I should document this importatnt milestone. Well, this is technically not her FIRST day of school pictures. I was little too emotional to capture the first day :) But these were from the second day. I was very nervous for her to start her new school Monday and I made Bear go with me to take her. I never understand why I get so worked up and I worry about how she will react to things because she ALWAYS adapts so well. This was no exception. She walked down the hall with her little backpack straight to her room, put it in her cubby, and then walked over to the toys and started playing. No looking back at us, no sad face, no tears (from her!!), nada. So we just turned around and left with mixed emotions. Part of me wanted her to need me, but part of me was relieved that she felt comfortable. Nevertheless, she has had a terrific few days. Her report card is great and momma and papa are having to stay on our toes to keep up with her homework!!

She is so busy and pictures are getting very hard to take!

"Mom, puh-lease get that camera out of my face, I have places to go!"

"Seriously, I HAVE to go..... NOW!!"

This backpack is Cohen's new best friend. She knows that it is her's and she loves to drag it around the house. As soon as I tell her it is time to go, she runs and gets her bag and trots to the door and off she goes.

We have Open House next week and I can not wait to hear what she has been doing. I met with her teacher, speech therapist, and audiologist last week to establish our goals for her over the next year. It very encouraging for all of us to be on the same page and working towards the same objective. We are so excited to see what is to come!!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Cohen is still small for her age, especially her feet. She is still wearing a size 3 and we can never find any to fit her. It doesn't really seem to bother her, because she only has 1 pair that she likes (these are not them) and all the rest she takes off all the time. Even at school, she won't wear her shoes.

After swim lessons one night, we packed a picnic and ate at the Reservoir. We also brought a kite along. Well, it never occurred to me that we might need a little bit of wind! Kinson and Bear took it as a challenge to get this kite up in the air. They ran all over and finally had lift off!!

Sorry for the long lapse between posts. Hopefully after this week and we get into our regular routine I will have a bit of time to myself. We are headed to the beach for an extended weekend to celebrate my birthday.....this one is really getting to me. The Big 3-0 doesn't sound all that appealing to me :)

The last few weeks have been a smorgasbord of things going on and I have been fortunate enough to catch a few things on camera!

Cohen has gotten a little (more like ALOT) sassy lately. She thinks that she can just show off her cute dimples and get her way......it usually works!!

Kinson finished swim lessons 2 weeks ago, can he swim? No. Did he go to each and every lesson and sit and do what "Mr. Ton" (his name is really Tom) said? Not really. However, he managed to get his face wet a few days and that in itself is a huge accomplishment. He also has decided that he will not get in any pool that does not have a zero-entry side. This has caused a few meltdowns at the neighborhood pool and Uncle Mitchel's.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Can you even see them?! Cohen got her hearing aids at the beginning of July and we had been prepared for a tough transition into learning to wear them consistently. I even took a week off work to assist with this. Well, we should have known that should would tolerate them just as well as she tolerates everything else that comes her way. She has done FABULOUS!!! At first, she squirmed and resisted us putting them in her ears but never pulled at them or tried to take them out. They even gave us "critter clips" to attach to them in case she pulls at them, they can fall out but still be attached to her clothes. We have only used them at school and the other kids noticed the clips and kept pulling them out, that was little frustrating but she endured it.

Now she wakes up in the morning and points at her ears before she gets out of the crib wanting us to put them in---immediately. She doesn't want to miss a thing. It has been truly amazing to watch her as she has learning a whole new side of her world. She is so responsive now and a few of the things that we were thought were "delays", were actually a lack of hearing (not all her delays are that easily explained...).

This is what she typically looks like throughout the day, she is always pointing at her ears letting us know she is hearing. She loves to show off he "new ears."

She has learned a few new tricks--she can point at her belly, hair, and of course her ears when asked. She also loves cows......so much that there will be a whole post about her new obsession :)

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I have been terrible at printing and putting pics into scrapbooks and filling in Kinson's and Cohen's baby books, so I figured I would give this a try to capture those funny little moments and share them with family and friends!